Construction Crew Unearths Ruins Of Old San Francisco City Hall Building Destroyed In ’06 Quake

A man photographs the ruins of a building block in front of the remains of City Hall near Market and Seventh Streets after the Great Earthquake in San Francisco, California. The city hall which took 27 years to build at an estimated cost of $6 million, crumbled in less than 30 seconds during the quake. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) — Downtown construction crews have unearthed the massive foundations of the old San Francisco City Hall destroyed in the disastrous 1906 earthquake.

The wreckage of the old City Hall and its 300-foot dome became a famous symbol of the quake.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that workers digging on Hyde Street near Fulton Street for a landscaping project found the City Hall ruins on Sept. 14.

Archaeologists from the federal General Services Administration, which owns the adjacent former federal building, were called in to examine the foundations.

When the architects and historians were finished documenting the ruins, the construction crews would resume the landscaping project.

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